The hands of time, 1980s

The "Look Back" blog team likes to turn back "the hands of time" with our posts showcasing the wonderful images from the photograph collections at Dispatch headquarters.

In this post, we'll turn back the hands of time . . . and share some old Downtown "hands of time."

MIKE MUNDEN / DISPATCH

ABOVE:

Here's the clock in front of the Clock Restaurant, a Downtown Columbus landmark at 161 N. High St., in 1980.

"It is electric, and somewhere along the way it was dressed in attire almost garish enough to stop a clock," The Dispatch reported. "The restaurant, sadly, has closed, and the clock has read three past eight for months." (The Clock closed in April 1979.)

BELOW:

As published in The Dispatch in 1980:

This gem of horological architecture is at the Argo & Lehne store at 84 N. High St.

Bill Argo said it was erected probably about 1925 when the same location was the Harrington Co. The clockwork made by Seth Thomas has been replaced by an IBM electric timekeeping mechanism, and the clock can be regulated from inside the store.

"I hate to tell you," Argo said, "but there's no old man who climbs up to wind it or set the hands. Even the change to daylight (saving) time is no problem, except we don't come Downtown on Sundays to do it."

MIKE MUNDEN / DISPATCH

BELOW:

Here's a binary clock at Diamond Savings & Loan, next to the State Office Tower, as shot in October 1983:

MIKE MUNDEN / DISPATCH

In each column (hours on left, minutes in middle, seconds on right), read the dots from top to bottom as 1, 2, 4 and 8. Add up the lighted dots to get the time -- here, 12 hours (4 plus 8), 11 minutes, 21 seconds (12:11:21).